Aboard RV Seascope, Near Johnston Atoll, Mid-Pacific
The captain spotted the U.S. Coast Guard KC-130 turbo-prop on a low, slow approach to the island’s runway and sent word for his flight crew to launch the ship’s resident Bell Jet Ranger helicopter. It wasn’t part of his brief to know why, but he’d been ordered to waste no time in getting two VIPs aboard the Seascope as soon as possible after they arrived on Johnston Island from Honolulu. When the helo pilot successfully lifted the four-passenger aircraft off his fantail, the captain picked up the phone and got Dr. Janis Fielding on the line.
In an air conditioned conference room below decks, Dr. Fielding got the message, hung up the phone and turned to the scientific staff she’d selected to brief the visitors. “They’re on the way. Shou
